Nine Ajax players to perform at World Cup
16 May: All of the 32 participating nations for
the 2006 World Cup in Germany have officially announced
their squads of 23 players. In total, nine Ajacieden
will go to Germany with their
respective national teams: two Czechs, one Swede, one
Tunisian and five Dutchmen. Much to everyone's surprise (and,
in many cases, diappointment) Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is
not one of them.
Marco van Basten's decision to leave the top goalscorer of
the Eredivisie out of his squad is now the
subject of a national discussion in The Netherlands.
According to surveys only 8% of the Dutch population thinks
that the Oranje boss has made the right decision,
while almost every sports journalist or commentator in the
country shared their views on 'Huntergate' with
the people in TV shows and on sports pages of Holland's
newspapers.
There are five
Ajacieden in the Dutch squad: Maarten Stekelenburg (as the
#3 goalkeeper), Wesley Sneijder, Hedwiges Maduro and, more
surprisingly, John Heitinga (who didn't even dare to
think of the World Cup a few months ago,
but ended the season in excellent form) and Ryan Babel,
who admitted that he found it "a bit awkward" that he was
picked - whereas Huntelaar wasn't.
"Klaas is a cheerful, level-headed, fantastic bloke,
who has done well in training camp," commented Marco van
Basten. "But four strikers is too much. Bad luck for him. He
can focus on the European Championship in Portugal with Young
Oranje now. Over there he can prove us wrong." Van Basten and
his partner-in-crime, John van 't Schip, opted for
Ruud van Nistelrooy, two strikers who can also play on the
wings (Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel) plus a physical,
headstrong battering-ram (Vennegoor of Hesselink).
Huntelaar, meanwhile, found himself sitting at a desk with
a 'forest' of microphones and an army of camera men in
front of him. "I'm on form, which makes it bitter that I didn't
make it. I was given a chance and I thought I'd taken it.
But I don't feel like whining. I will have to accept this
and move on. I just want to play at the World Cup with Young
Oranje. Erm, I mean the European Championship. I'm sorry."
Huntelaar will now play in Portugal with Young Oranje. Urby
Emanuelson and Kenneth Vermeer were also selected by coach
Foppe de Haan.
Zdenek
Grygera and Tomás Galásek (who will
leave Ajax, but will be an Ajacied until 30 June) were selected
for the Czech Republic, while Markus
Rosenberg was called up for Sweden. The boss of the
Tunisian national team, finally, called up Hatem
Trabelsi.
In total, 27 players from the Dutch Eredivisie were selected
for the World Cup in Germany: 9 of Ajax, 8 of PSV
(Ooijer, Cocu and Vennegoor of Hesselink for Holland,
Beasley for the United States, Culina and Thompson for
Australia, Koné for Ivory Coast and Addo for
Ghana) and 5 of AZ (Timmer, De Cler, Landzaat,
Jaliens and Mathijsen, all for Holland). Five Dutch clubs have
one selectee: Feyenoord (Kuyt/Holland), NAC Breda
(Vonlanthen/Switzerland), ADO Den Haag (Gibbs/United States),
NEC (Barreto/Paraguay) and Heerenveen (Hansson/Sweden).
(MP)
Sources: Het Parool, Ajax.nl, NOS Teletekst
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